1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a needle for a needle bar or rod, the needle comprising a fastening area at its foot area and above this an actively combing tip area, as well as to a needle bar equipped with such needles. The needle is a stamped element wherein the fastening area has a recess closed or open outwards for the needle to be slipped on a support rod. The recess is non-circular or has projections or indents corresponding to the cross-section of the support rod such that the needle is disposed non-rotatably on the support rod.
2. Background Art
Needles of this type are known from DE 19 36 323 A1. The needles of the needle bars in such textile machines are subject to wear during operation and they tend to break off. Therefore, it is necessary to replace the needle bars after a certain service life. Consequently, there is the prerequisite that such needle bars be fixed to the needle support to be easily attachable and detachable; on the other hand, absolutely reliable fit of the needle bars on the support must be assured during operation.
To this end, various fastening techniques have been developed. In particular, it is known to arrest needle bars as a pre-assembled line of needles in the needle support or, respectively, in a longitudinal groove of the latter by soldering. Further, fastening by gluing has become known. Other solutions provide for knob-type projections to be disposed on the side walls of the foot of the needle bars, so that the needle bars can be inserted in the way of a slide lock into corresponding grooves of the needle bar support.
These prior art solutions are disadvantageous in that they do not ensure sufficiently easy handling or reliable fastening, nor are they suitable for needle bars having a foot formed by a plastic strip.
Applicant's U.S. Pat. No. 5,201,098 teaches a solution for the fastening of needles on a needle bar that permits improved replacing as compared to prior art solutions, the individual needles of conventional manufacture and shape being combined along their foot area by a plastic strip, this strip being fixed to a support rod. But, as outlined, even with this kind of improved fastening as compared to the prior art of that time, it is still necessary first to combine the individual needles.
For some applications it has become known to provide an outfit of so-called stamped sawtooth elements, which are attached either in the form of continuous sawtooth wires or individual sections of stamped elements, instead of an outfit of individual needles that must be arranged in the way described above. For the fastening of stamped elements it is known to provide dove-tail configurations, so as to be able to line and mount these stamped elements by positive fit on a round comb. Applicant's U.S. Pat. No. 4,606,095 is an example of this.
It has become apparent, however, that for certain applications, for instance in drawing equipment, it is more advantageous to provide needle bars than to use stamped elements.
DE 19 36 323 A1 of the species teaches, for the purpose of disentangling bunches of threads by needle combs, to line up sheet disks non-rotatably one beside the other, each round sheet disk having a projection denoted as a needle and extending radially for a comparatively short length referred to the diameter of the basic body of the disk. In this known embodiment, it was judged substantial to create a roller with a needle comb by using the thinnest possible metal sheet for the distance of the tips to be kept as small as possible, it being assumed, with a view to the application of such combing rollers, that the shape of the needle would be of no importance. Such rollers are not suitable for combing operations as occur for instance in drawing equipment, where a comparatively long and effectively combing tip area is required accompanied by a typically elongated configuration of the needle, the needle being provided with rounded edges to have the specific cross-sectional shape of a needle.